In keeping with her group's Japanese theme, her eyelids had been surgically altered - her 42nd cosmetic procedure, as she closes in on the Guinness World Record of 47, held by an American. Each samba group has 80 minutes to parade through Rio's "Sambadrome," an 85,000-seat venue built for the annual samba "school" competition. The event is taken as seriously as soccer in Latin America's largest nation. The competition winds down Tuesday morning with a parade by the current champion Beija Flor, or "Hummingbird." A panel of judges ranks groups on their costumes, floats and featured dancers and on how well they move their thousands-strong groups through the stadium. A new champion will be announced Wednesday




Instead, the group sambaed through the streets wearing white gowns and gags. "You don't build the future by burying the past," a banner on its new float read. Hundreds of other dancers wore electric chairs or dressed as cockroaches and skied down a 40-meter (130-foot) ice-coated float. Also parading Sunday night was Angela Bismarchi, the 36-year-old star of the Porto da Pedra samba group. In little more than silver body paint and black feathered wings, she joined thousands of dancers decked out as geishas, sushi chefs and samurai.